Electronic & Time-Based Media [ETB]

The ETB area explores the creative possibilities of emerging technologies and their role in society.

Focus areas include animation, video and performance, tactical media, bioart, computational and interactive art, tangible media, and game arts. Classes in the ETB area combine the production of new media artworks, along with the historical and theoretical underpinnings of the practice. Our program encourages cross-disciplinary study and offers several degree options that connect it to the larger Carnegie Mellon community. The ETB area is comprised of four full-time professors, along with several visiting and adjunct faculty.

Introductory Classes

The ETB curriculum is built upon two introductory classes, Electronic Media Studio One (EMS1) and Electronic Media Studio 2 (EMS2).

Electronic Media Studio One (EMS1):
An introduction to the computer as a dynamic tool for time-based media production. In this course students develop skills in digital video and audio production through the exploration of narrative, experimental, performance, documentary and animation themes and forms. Historical and contemporary works are presented and discussed to provide a context for studio projects.

Electronic Media Studio Two (EMS2):
An introduction to software programming and physical computing within the context of the arts. In this course students develop the skills and confidence to produce interactive artworks using audiovisual, networked and tangible media.

Advanced Classes

Intermediate and advanced classes in the ETB area are more in-depth and targeted toward specific production practices.

The range of topics in these classes includes: 3D animation, computational art, physical computing, performance, video games, experimental sound and music, robotic art, biological artwork and video art among others. There are also classes that are cross-listed between the ETB area and another department or school such as, Animation Art and Technology between ETB and Computer science.

SOME ADVANCED COURSES:

Video and Performance:
The studio course explores the history of, contemporary practice of and the making of artists’ performance for video. Beginning with the earliest experiments by artists, performance has played (and continues to play) an essential role in the development of the medium. Through readings, screenings, conversations, and creative projects, students will become experts in this dynamic creative field. Our investigation begins with early 20th century avant-garde performance, a time before video, as a way to provide a context for the video performance works that emerged around the same time as the introduction of the Sony Porta-Pak in the mid-1960s. We will look at a wide range of video (and sometimes film) performance practices that engage a plethora of strategies to explore many themes including: Camp, Gender, Sexuality, The Body, Ritual, Endurance, Pretend, Activism, Re-enactment, Play, Drag, Theater, Mass-Media, Television, Pop-Culture, Abjection, Shamanism and much, much more.

Music Video/Visual Music:
This studio/production course explores the history and contemporary practices of Music Video and Visual Music from avant-garde to pop culture with plenty of slippage in between. We consider everything From Spooney Melodies to fan made webcam extravaganzas, from Oskar Fischinger to Mike Kelley and beyond. Students create music videos in collaboration with local bands and musicians from all genres. Additionally students create their own cinematic audio-visual experiments that might be categorized as Visual Music. Many well known artists and avant-garde filmmakers have make music videos including: Tony Oursler, Charles Atlas, Jem Cohen, Sadie Benning, Ara Peterson and Bruce Connor. Additionally many artists create music-based video including: Paper Rad, Mike Kelley, Shana Moulton, Animal Charm, Pipilotti Rist, and Bjorn Melhus. Works by these artists and many others are screened, researched and discussed.

PostNatural Art Studio:
Students will be introduced to the study of the human alteration of the living world from both a theoretical and practical perspective. Laboratory activities will introduce some of the common practices in biology. Biological Art projects will encourage ethical discussion and allow for the critical examination of the social and cultural implications of working with living organisms.

Tactical Media: This course considers the practice and theory of tactical media, hacktivism, and other media-based strategies of communication, protest and critique. The course examines the history of artists, activists, pranksters and interventionists who use emerging communications media in novel and unconventional ways, as exemplified by such groups as The Yes Men, Critical Art Ensemble, Preemptive Media, Franko and Eva Mattes and others. Students will develop several projects that employ skills in digital and physical media to create works that creatively engage with audiences in contexts that may not be traditionally associated with art.Special Topics in Interactive Art and Computational Design: This is an advanced studio course in arts computing and new media practice. Topics surveyed in the course will be tailored to student interests, and may include: experimental interface design, information visualization, game design, real-time audiovisuals, locative and mobile media, computational form-generation for rapid prototyping, image processing and vision-based interactions, augmented reality, simulation, networked crowd-sourcing, dynamic typography, mechatronic and device art, physical computing, and other topics. Through a small number of exploratory assignments and a public capstone project, students will bolster interdisciplinary problem-solving abilities and explore computation as a medium for curiosity-driven experimentation. Enrolling students are expected to have demonstrable programming skills, without exception, at or beyond the level of an introductory class such as 15-100. Although the course will provide technical overviews of major arts-programming toolkits (including Processing, Max/MSP/Jitter, openFrameworks, and Arduino), assignments may be executed in the student’s preferred programming environment.Experimental Game Design: An hands-on game development course focused on innovative and expressive forms of gameplay. Structured in a series of short assignments, the class will involve the radical transformation of "standard" games engines into meaningful / original / impossible / playable artworks. Or beautiful failures.

Options for Undergraduate Study in Electronic Arts

The School of Art offers a wide range of flexible degree options for interdisciplinary undergraduate study in computer-based media. These include:

The regular BFA: All School of Art undergraduates share a curriculum that includes foundational exposure to the tools and concepts underlying digital imaging and fabrication, video, animation, and interactive media.

The BFA with a concentration in ETB (Electronic and Time Based arts). 360-380 units.

A minor in Computer Science or related discipline, beyond the BFA. This requires 6 courses in that department.

The BCSA (Bachelor of Computer Science and Art): an "integrated double-major". 380 units. This requires successful admission to both the School of Art and the School of Computer Science. For more information about the BCSA, or its sister programmes, the BHA (Bachelor of Humanities and Arts) or BSA (Bachelor of Science and Arts), contact the BXA Office.

The Double-Major: 500-540 units. The Student earns a BFA with an additional major, in e.g. Computer Science.

The Double-Degree: earning both BFA and BS degrees. 530-570 units. This is likely to require an additional year.

The BCSA with ETC 5th-Year Option: the student earns a BCSA in 3.5 years in combination with an accelerated (1.5 year) Masters of Entertainment Technology at the ETC.